Metaphysical Geometric Unity, Cognition & Human Consciousness…
Mediating a Mind-Independent Reality via a Mind-Dependent Representation
“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions”…
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Teaching means creating situations where structures can be discovered”…
– Jean Piaget
“Geometry will draw the soul toward truth and create the spirit of philosophy”…
– Plato
In Substance — The Primary Mode of Being and the Medium for Meaning a central idea was the Metaxic role of Semiotics in mediating human consciousness’sphenomenological experience of Being — participating in a Mind Independent Reality — whilst — developing a Mind-Dependent Representation.
A recognition of a Metaphysical Geometric Unity ( Being, Knowing & Meaning).
The process of forming abstract spatial geometric structures of thought — categories, concepts and relationships of meaning.
The purpose of abstraction is to allow the mind to organise, generalise, and manipulate meaning beyond immediate perception. It facilitates problem-solving, theoretical development, creativity, and the ability to recognise and generalise underlying patterns in the world. Through abstraction, humans can engage in complex reasoning, innovate, and extend knowledge beyond sensory limitations.
Exploring the semiotic landscape of abstraction and high-dimensional geometric space of understanding constrained by necessity ( e.g. Kant’s Categories — twelve fundamental a priori concepts of knowing that structure human experience, Aristotle’s Categories — ten fundamental a priori concepts of being and Peirce’s Categories — three fundamental a priori process phases of mediating human experiences with the human mind) and empowered by possibility ( e.g. pursuit of higher order normative sciences ( ethics, aesthetics & truth), creative imagination, learning, new habits and new modes of Being).
When semiotics (meaning) is combined with epistemology (knowing) and ontology (being) (i.e. a Metaphysical Geometric Unity ) it brings together a Sense of Coherence to Man’s conscious participation in a context-dependent Reality.
Meaning and understanding arise not by grasping an ultimate objective Reality but through the embodied metaxic semiotic participation in Reality between the Observer (Interpreter) and the Observed (Object).
“Objectivity is the delusion that observations could be made without an observer”…
― Heinz von Foerster
A symbolic mediation of experiences through symbols is only accessible through participation in Reality (Heidegger — Being in the World — Dasein and Husserl — Lieb — Lived Body).
It highlights the important distinction between Meaning ( Part of the World — Unity of Being — Metaphysical Geometric Unity) and other disciplines such as Science****, Mathematics etc… (Concepts, Categories & Relationships of Knowing — Apart from the World — Cognition (Mind)).
***Note — Science tends to take an ontic (i.e. ontological — what exists)) approach, analysing being from an external, detached perspective (i.e. apart from the World — viewing Reality from the balcony of abstraction) rather than recognising the embodied entangled nature of Being (ie. semiotic — lived embodied experience — being in the world) that allows such analysis to emerge in the first place.
Note: Scientific progress emerges from new relationships of meaning (i.e. Semiotics & Abductive Reasoning) and our being in the World. Modern Science is increasingly in crisis as it orientates increasingly towards a world of abstraction and academia (apart from the World). Without a Metaphysical Geometric Unity that is ever-present in Man’s participation in Reality through Being it is inevitable that our Sense of Coherence collapses. A new Dark Age.
A conscious state that represents a Metaphysical Geometric Unity and Triadic of:
- The necessity of Being (Ontology ) — What is existence itself? What is real?;
- The possibility of Knowing (Epistemology) — A participation in a Reality beyond our present understanding and our current limits of understanding (Negative Capability); and
- Meaning (Semiotics) — Our Metaxic Semiotic mediation of experiences via signs that transcend Being and Knowing and bring coherence and intelligibility. It is metaxic in that it combines the physical (e.g. agency, actions, behaviours, habits) with the metaphysical (e.g. abstraction, concepts, categories, relationships, understanding).
In doing so, it challenges the prevailing intellectual paradigm that semiotics is a subset of philosophy because philosophy deals with the broadest questions, and meaning is one of those questions.
Given all human knowledge and human lived experiences are expressed and mediated through signs, semiotics could be seen as the foundational discipline of Being from which science, philosophy, physics and other semantic disciplines of meaning originate.
Whilst these disciplines are anchored in abstraction and the study of thought (logic), semiotics emerge through the primary mode of being and man’s participation in Reality — our relational lived embodied contextual experiences.
Metaxic Semiotics is a disruptive idea that illuminates Gödel’s Limits of Logic — noting (Logic is the Study of Thought).
A paradigm shift in how we perceive Reality.
A fundamental feature of intelligence (part logical & part biological), human consciousness and participation in Reality (Being).
A shift to a Triadic form of Reason emanating from Semantics, new relationships of meaning (Abduction) and Being in the World.
In other words, if we accept that:
- Reality is everything that exists;
- Being is the act of Existing;
- The Primary mode of Being for finite Natural Beings is Substance which reflects a Unity of Being (Essence, Form (Primary (Particular) & Secondary (Universal)) and Matter — Aristotle);
- The Metaxic Semiotic derives Meaning from our lived experiences and the Unity of Being (i.e. the relationship of Substances). At the same time, Human Consciousness can discern and reconcile the composition of Substances between form (metaphysical) and matter (physical) — Forms as Epistemological Truths: True Being (Ouisa) and the intelligent structure of things — and — Substance as Ontological Existence: Real Being (Ousiai) and what exists.
- Charles Sanders Peirce — Categories of the Whole — modes of Being (Firstness, Secondness and Thirdness — a Triadic Nature of Human Consciousness (Primisense, Altersense and Medisense)) provides the final category necessary for a Geometric Unity (a Triadic) in Metaphysics (Study of Being — Science of Reality). Introducing a new category — modes of Being — anchored in human consciousnesses and the phenomenological process of transforming our subjective lived experiences of Being (i.e. the necessity of Being) into new relationships of Meaning that are mediated through signs to form structures, concepts and categories that are the basis of knowing (i.e. the possibility of knowing). A process that highlights the part biological and part logical nature of intelligence. Man’s metaxic semiotic participation in Reality.
We can conclude that:
- Integrated Metaphysical Geometric Nature of Human Consciousness — The Geometric Unity of Metaphysics that results from Peirce’s Categories bridging Aristotle’s Ontological Categories (a priori — types of Being) and Kant’s Epistemological Categories (a priori — cognitive structures ) leads to an integrated understanding of Human Consciousness. One that recognises the symbiotic relationship between a mind-independent reality and mind-dependent representation. It reflects an Intentional Consciousness (Husserl) where the Self is not closed but where consciousness is fundamentally relational — always engaged with the World and Objects in it.
- Humans unfolding (emergent) representation of Reality — Our embodied lived experiences (Being in the World — Dasein) is an unfolding Aristotelean Four Causes interplay between the Actualisation of Potentiality (Efficient Cause) and What (Material Cause), How (Formal Cause) and Why ( Final Cause — Telos). Or stated differently, Being (What? — the act of Existing), Knowing (How? — Human Thought understands Existence) and Meaning (Why ?) — What it represents and signifies through the actualisation of potential new relationships of meaning emerge.
- Participation in Reality: Metaxic Semiotic — Intelligibility, meaning and understanding arise not by grasping an ultimate objective Reality but through the embodied metaxic participation in Reality — a symbolic mediation via signs (such as language). This field of experiences and symbols is a time dimension of existence only accessible through participation in Reality.
- Reality and Human Thought — Thought interacts with reality but does not create it.
- Implications of ignoring Metaxy and attempting to deconstruct the Metaphysical Geometric Triadic — Totalitarian ideologies (e.g. communism and fascism) attempt to eliminate Metaxy (refer Voegelin) by offering false certainty and immanent utopias instead of recognising the inherent nature of the human condition and the struggle humans experience to ascend to understanding the higher realms (a potentiality of Being).
- The Triadic Nature of Truth grounded in the Metaphysical Geometric Unity of Human Consciousness — meaning is not just about whether something exists (ontology) or how we know it (epistemology), but how it functions in the world (pragmatism). This suggests that truth is not merely correspondence (ontological matching reality) or coherence (epistemological fitting within a conceptual system of knowledge), but is ultimately pragmatic — tied to its actual effects. In other words, the mind-independent reality and mind-dependent representation are interconnected. Hence, Ideas have Consequences.
- Meaning is inherently a Metaxic Semiotic process grounded in the Primary mode of Being — Substance (Man participates in Reality (Dasein (Heidegger) — Lieb (Husserl) — Embodied Perception (Maurice Merleau-Ponty)) — It emerges through the medium of Substances (Primary Mode of Being) and Conscious Man’s (i.e. Self) interaction ( Intentional Consciousness (Husserl)) with the World (i.e. non-Self) through his phenomenological bodily experience. In other words, it is through a metaxic semiotic process of the interaction between mind-independent reality and a mind-dependent representation (interpretation mediated by signs) that Meaning emerges (an idea that aligns with Husserl’s critique of a World existing independently of Human Consciousness ( i.e. Natural Attitude and a reorientation towards a Phenomenological Attitude).
- Meaning (Semiotics) is foundational to Human consciousness, Knowledge and Human’s understanding of Reality — Given all human knowledge and human lived experiences are expressed and mediated through signs, semiotics could be seen as the foundational discipline of Being from which science, philosophy, physics and other semantic disciplines of meaning originate. Meaning arises through embodied perception rather than detached cognition (Maurice Merleau-Ponty). It highlights the distinction between Meaning ( Part of the World — Unity of Being — Metaphysical Geometric Unity) and other disciplines such as Science, Mathematics etc… (Concepts & Categories & Relationships of Knowing — Apart from the World — Cognition (Mind)).
- Truth is a participatory process of Being understood by the Human Mind — Human consciousness is a participatory metaxic semiotic process that allows for:
- the interpretation of mind-independent reality via
- a mind-dependent representation, leading to learning, knowledge formation, and the actualisation of potential.
“Geometry will draw the soul toward truth and create the spirit of philosophy”…
– Plato
